I am a Speech Therapist by profession and I worked for 10 years teaching children how to read and spell. I usually worked alongside an Occupational Therapist. In those 10 years, I came across only 2 or 3 children who were truly dyslexic.
The majority of the children needed more training…some more intensive than others. That was all. Once we (Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists) had opened their eyes (Occupational Therapist) and ears (Speech Therapist) and corrected their visual perceptions (Occupational Therapist) and auditory perceptions (Speech Therapist), a light switch would go on and voila the kid could read!
AN EXPERIMENT
I decided to do an ‘experiment’ on my first born son. What if the pre-reading skills were taught to a child before they could even talk? From about 6 months of age, I would take my son to the local library and ‘read’ stories to him. As I read to him, I clapped the syllables of words, I showed him rhyming words, I emphasised initial sounds, final sounds, middle sounds etc.
By thirteen months, he was clapping the word EX-CA-VA-TOR. At about 18 months he could tell me what a rhyming word was and he could generate his own. He could also tell me what sound a word began with and ended with etc. His vocabulary and language skills astounded people. By the age of 3 years old, his teacher said he was ready to read.
THE MAIN POINT
My point here is: the ‘experiment’ worked. I do not think my son is particularly gifted. I truly believe it is because I just knew how and practiced the skills from a very early age. The skills are not rocket science, as you will see. Anyone can learn them! As with anything of value and worth, it takes time and sacrifice to teach them. However, in the long term if the reading foundations are set, you will save yourself and your child a lot of heartache (and money!).
Written by Katharine Denholm who can be contacted on the links below.